I am a dealer, specialising in Russian Area Philately. You can contact me at
patemantrevor@gmail.com
You can find material from my specialised stock in the regular online auction at www.filateliapalvelu.com and also in the auctions of heinrich-koehler.de which are held in Wiesbaden.
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Saturday, 28 April 2018

Grading Rarities: A Case Study of Kyiv 1 Tridents

Click on Images to Magnify

One problem with rare
stamps is that we cannot always get them in the exact quality we would like; we
have to make do with second best. Above, for example, is my stock of Russian 7
ruble black and yellow stamps overprinted with single handstamp tridents of
Kyiv type 1. This is a rare stamp: as Bulat #12 it catalogues $500 mint and
$400 used. I comment on the advantages and disadvantages of each stamp, left to
right:

Stamp
1:
Superb! Probably CTO with a neat, central KIEV 3 12 18 cancel and the back of the
stamp perfectly clean. Probably washed off a philatelic cover or sheet of paper.
The date is a bit late for this Trident which was one of the first to appear
and the 7 ruble value was used non-philatelically on Money Transfers so could
not easily be obtained genuinely used. BUT main drawback: no one has ever
signed this stamp. Maybe it was signed on paper which has been removed from the
back but that’s no help. And who will sign it now?

Stamp
2:
Nice perforations and clean back, but messy cancels. It could have been genuinely
used since the messy cancels look like overlapped KIEV and KHARKOV and
helpfully a .. 10 18 date is readable – early dates are good on these stamps.
BUT the Trident is a bit washed out and the stamp is unsigned

Stamp
3: Oh,
a variety INVERTED OVERPRINT not listed by Bulat. Most probably CTO since there
is gum on the back. Rather messy trident. On the back a big handstamp AUFDRUCK
FALSCH. Oh dear …. However, look more closely and you will see that FALSCH has
been crossed through in pencil and beside it there are the initials of Dr S in
what I believe to be the handwriting of Dr
Seichter and bottom right is his handstamp Dr
Seichter in violet. It looks like Seichter made a mistake which he
corrected. The overprint is not a forgery – I don’t think it is. But who wants
a stamp with a great big AUFDRUCK FALSCH?

Stamp
4: Oh
…Oh… Kyiv 1 Trident and underneath Kyiv 2 (I’m going to propose sub-type 2a) in
similar or identical inks. Unreadable cancel. Clean back, no gum, tiny pencil
annotation.. Signed UPV! I think it’s genuine though unlisted and, of course,
philatelic. Still, if you like rarities this is one you are not going to see
again next week ….

Your task: Suppose you
had to price these. Which would you ask most for?

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